Judge Will Run -- Lawyer Wants Salfi Seat

July 18, 1986|By Leslie Kemp of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Seminole-Brevard Circuit Judge S. Joseph Davis Jr. qualified for re- election Wednesday and Maitland attorney James R. Lavigne announced he is seeking the judgeship available this fall with the resignation of Dominick J. Salfi.

Davis, 63, of Sanford, was appointed circuit judge in 1979 to fill a new judgeship and was elected to a full six-year term in 1980. He practiced law for 22 1/2 years with the Sanford law firm of Stenstrom, Davis, McIntosh and Julian and represented several municipalities.

Davis served in the state House of Representatives from 1962 to 1966 and was a member of the Florida Constitutional Revision Commission in 1965-67, which drafted proposed revisions to the state Constitution.

He now handles civil and domestic cases in the circuit post, which pays $67,276 per year.

Lavigne, 35, said his 11 years of trial practice qualify him to be a circuit judge. He said a judge should be impartial, diligent and ''strive to minimize the cost and expense of legal litigation.''

The election will not be Lavigne's first venture into politics. He served as a Casselberry city councilman in 1980-82 and made an unsuccessful bid in 1982 for the House seat held by Rep. Carl Selph, R-Casselberry. He has served as treasurer and legal counsel for the Seminole County Republican Party and has been legal counsel for the Florida Federation of Young Republicans.

The position became available with last week's announcement by Salfi that he was resigning after 16 years on the bench to teach, do public speaking and practice law in Seminole County. Salfi said he timed his resignation so the vacancy, effective midnight Sept. 30, could be filled by election.

A University of Florida law school graduate, Lavigne handles civil and criminal cases in state and federal court. He has lectured around the state to lawyers about landlord-tenant law, divorce and property law and real estate fraud law.

The non-partisan elections are set for Sept. 2. Runoffs, if necessary, would be held Nov. 4. Candidate qualifying for the four judicial seats expires at noon today.